"There you go again," sobbed the incorrigible girl, "asserting things of which you know nothing. No tigers near a town! Why there may be one within a few yards of us now, for anything you or I know to the contrary."
"Well, then, I am sure we had better run on," I urged.
"Yes, and then he would jump at us!" replied Charlotte, looking round with a scared expression.
I tried to soothe her, saying that during all the many years we had lived at the Cape such a thing had not been heard of as a tiger visiting this part of the country.
"Not heard of!" repeated Charlotte, scornfully; "as if hundreds of things do not occur every day which you neither know nor hear of. A nice comforter you are, to be sure, Mechie!"
"Well, but, Charlotte, what is it you propose doing? Sitting there all night?" A feeling of impatience was again rising within me.
"I shall sit here certainly until some one has the humanity to come and look for us," she answered in a determined tone.
"Oh, do reflect, Charlotte, on what you are doing!" I pleaded; "do consider that poor auntie, and uncle too, will have become very anxious if not frightened about us before thinking it necessary to seek us, and—"
"And I only hope they will not go on much longer without getting frightened about us," interrupted Charlotte. "Oh how thankful I should feel to see uncle coming this way! I am sure all their united fears of a week wouldn't amount to mine at this moment."
I was excessively disconcerted by this obstinate fit of Charlotte's. Up to the present time I had no doubt that uncle and aunt believed us still in the garden, or the former would long ago have come to seek us, and my great anxiety was to return before they had discovered our absence and become apprehensive of our safety.